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Ice Follies
Ice Follies was a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. The show was founded in 1937 by Eddie Shipstad, Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson, who also skated in the show. In later years, Olympic skaters such as Donald Jackson, Peggy Fleming, and Janet Lynn were in the cast. Starting in August 1974, the Ice Follies began including 20-minute acts featuring skaters in full-body costumes of the Sesame Street Muppets. The original act featured Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Cookie Monster, Betty Lou, Oscar the Grouch, and the Count, with the addition of Small Bird in 1976. The tour visited dozens of cities across the United States, as well as Puerto Rico and Mexico. The 1974 season's Sesame Street segment was for the most part song-oriented. Although songs played a part in all Sesame segments, subsequent years featured more dialogue. For that season, Ernie's character appeared in a bathtub for the entire time, and sang "Rubber Duckie". Oscar only briefly appeared, in a trash can, to sing "I Love Trash". The 1975 season featured, in addition to a full-body Ernie, numerous Anything Muppets joining the cast regulars for "What's the Name of That Song?". After the Anything Muppets finished and left the ice, Mr. Snuffleupagus came out and sang "Nobody" in his only appearance of the series. For the 1976 season (the third with Sesame characters), Ice Follies added new character Small Bird to the skating cast. Part of this segment included a bit about Cookie Monster running for President. In 1977, in addition to a regular Sesame segment, there was a brief "Sesame Street Presents Numbers" segment about counting, with prop numbers almost as tall as the characters. During this segment, one of Ernie's gags was to demonstrate, with a pair of fold-out wings, how to convert the number "1" into the letter "T", which did not amuse the Count. Ice Follies merged with "Holiday on Ice" in 1979, and the Sesame Street characters began appearing in Holiday on Ice shows. As early as season seven of Sesame Street, a series of sketches using the Ice Follies versions of the characters out on the rink were produced. The opening of the 1978 TV special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street featured a lengthy skating sequence also featuring the characters from the Ice Follies show. Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar and the Count all appeared in full-body ice skating form in the special, with voice overs for the characters provided by Frank Oz (Bert and Cookie Monster), Caroll Spinney (Oscar), Jerry Nelson (The Count) and Jim Henson (Ernie). At the end of the sequence, the characters play "snap the whip", which ends with Oscar being tossed high into the air, down the stairs and out into the street, where he returns to his familiar hand-puppet form. File:Icefollies1975.jpg|1975 program holiday on ice 1977 program.jpg|1977 program IceFollies1978ProgramCover.jpg|1978 program holiday on ice 1979 program.jpg|1979 program Image:Holidayonice.jpg|1979 poster 1979 ice follies poster.jpg|1979 poster IceFollies1974Program.jpg|from the 1974 program Image:IceFollies1976Program.jpg|from 1976 program holiday on ice 1978 program 3.jpg|from the 1978 program from 1978 program.jpg|from 1978 program from 1979 program.jpg|back cover, 1979 program Image:Jillshipstadbigbird1978.jpg|Jill Shipstad, 1978 Image:Jillshipstadgrover1978.jpg|Jill Shipstad, 1978 Image:Kenjohnsoncookiemonster1979.jpg|Ken Johnson, 1979 Image:Mrfrickbigbird1979.jpg|Mr. Frick, 1979 don jackson and sesame.jpg|Don Jackson with Big Bird, Ernie and Bert Image:Bigbird1979.jpg Icefolliescast.JPG bert ernie skating.jpg Image:Icefolliesportlandoreg.png File:Icefolliesoscar.jpg File:Holidayonicemonster.jpg ice follies button cookie monster.jpg File:Holidayonicepin.jpg File:Holiday_on_ice_oscar_button.jpg Image:Snuffyoscaricefollies.jpg Image:Berternieicefolliesholiday.jpg holiday on ice 1979 poster bert ernie.jpg|Bert & Ernie poster, 1979 holiday on ice 1979 poster betty lu.jpg|"Betty Lu" poster, 1979 holiday on ice 1979 poster big bird.jpg|Big Bird poster, 1979 holiday on ice 1979 poster cookie monster.jpg|Cookie Monster poster, 1979 holiday on ice pin big bird.jpg See also * Ice Follies sketches External links * Holiday on Ice: Official site * 1980 video of the show * Jim's Red Book - 4/10/1974 -Go to Providence with Bonnie and Dave Connell to see Ice Follies __NOWYSIWYG__ Category:Sesame Street Stage Shows